Pretoria, 29 April 2014- A group of prize-winning Brazilian journalists visited the UN Information Centre Pretoria on 29 April 2014 for a briefing about the work of the UN in South Africa. The half-day encounter brought together colleagues from UNIC Pretoria, the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, the UN High Commissioner for Refugees and UNAIDS at the UN House in Pretoria, South Africa.

The group, on an educational tour of South Africa, was comprised of Ciara Carvalho and Ana Lúcia Andrade, two journalists from Jornal do Commércio, a daily newspaper from the Northeast state of Pernambuco, who won the 35thedition of the Vladimir Herzog Prize for Amnesty and Human Rights in the category Report on Internet; Marina Yoshimi Rodrigues Mori and Mariana de Camargo Ceccon, two students of journalism from the Federal University of Parana who won the 5th edition of the Young Journalist Fernando Pacheco Jordão Award, which promotes innovative news projects on human rights; as well as Ana Luisa Zaniboni Gomes, journalist and researcher; and Sergio Gomes da Silva, curator of both prizes, journalist and Vladimir Herzog Institute adviser.

The journalists and UN colleagues discussed the situation in South Africa as it celebrated its 20th year of democracy. They explored the many parallels between South Africa and Brazil which are struggling with issues of race, huge income disparities, gender inequality, the AIDS pandemic, environmental challenges, corruption and service delivery to marginalized populations, among others. The group plans to follow South Africa and human rights issues more closely in the future, having established good contacts with UN offices here.

The UN Information Centre in Rio de Janeiro, which is one of the institutions that organizes and promotes the Vladimir Herzog Prize for Amnesty and Human Rights, initiated the group’s visit to UNIC Pretoria.

The UN and South Africa

South Africa was one of the original 51 founding members of the United Nations, which came into existence on 24 October 1945. Since its inception the membership of the Organization has grown to 192 States. More »